Tag: Food

Braised Lamb Shank

RORY: Something smells good …. Oh, braised lamb shank! I love a lamb shank when it is braised.

Lamb shanks are the leg bone of the animal, between the knee and the shoulder, eaten whole. Braising means to brown the meat at a high temperature, then simmer it in a covered pot in liquid, such as tomatoes, stock, vinegar or wine, until the meat is tender and infused with flavour. Crock pots are a popular way to cook braised lamb shanks.

Apparently braised lamb shank is one of Rory’s favourite meals that she has at her grandparents’ place. Lamb seems to be one of their most commonly served dishes.

Scones

LORELAI: Scone mix, wow.

EMILY: This new little place opened right down the road from our house and they make these wonderful scones, and that is their mix so you can make them right in your own kitchen.

Scones are a baked good, a type of quick bread which uses baking powder as the leavening agent rather than yeast, usually served buttered or topped with jam and cream. They seem to have originated in Scotland, and are common and popular as part of morning or afternoon tea throughout the UK and Ireland.

In the US, scones are usually sweet, heavy, dry, and crumbly, more like a rock cake. They are usually triangular in shape, and filled with fruit such blueberries or sultanas, or flavoured with pumpkin, cinnamon, or chocolate chips. They may be topped with icing, and are usually served as they are, without butter or toppings. They are not very much like what a British person would recognise as a scone. [Picture shows American scones].

Cheese stick

LORELAI: Okay, so, do we do cheese stick, hot dog, cotton candy, or do we mix it up a little – start with the cotton candy and end with the cheese stick?

Cheese-on-a-stick, a carnival food item in the US, consisting of deep fried cheese coated with cornmeal batter, on a stick to hold it with. Dipping sauces may also be provided. Mozzarella is a popular cheese to use, and they seem to date to the 1970s.

Gummy Bears

LORELAI: Oh, but I got here early and there was nothing to do except feed gummy bears to the bomb dogs which, apparently, the United States government frowns upon.

Gummy bears are small fruit gum candy, like a jelly baby, but in the shape of a bear. The candy originated in Germany, when Hans Riegel Sr, a confectioner from Bonn who founded the Haribo candy company, invented the candy in 1922. They have always been extremely popular in Germany, and are sold in the US.

Kosher bacon

LORELAI: Huh, Kosher bacon.
SOOKIE: Beef, not pork.
LORELAI: I am so Jewish.

Beef bacon is made from beef belly, so that it’s streaked with fat like pork bacon, and then cured, dried, smoked, and sliced in exactly the same way. It’s leaner than pork bacon, though. It’s recently become popular because it’s halal and kosher – there’s a big market for it in the Middle East – but it’s not a new product. Bacon was made from beef and mutton as well as pork hundreds of years ago.

“I am so Jewish” is presumably a meta-comment from the writer, Amy Sherman-Palladino.

Sleepless in Seattle

LUKE: Then what the hell you doing here, Jess? You know, I, uh, I called you six times. Now I didn’t expect you to call me back so we could sit on the phone in bed and watch Sleepless in Seattle together.

Sleepless in Seattle, 1993 romantic comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Nora Ephron, and inspired by the 1957 romance film An Affair to Remember. It stars Meg Ryan as a newly engaged journalist whose heart is touched by a recently widowed architect, played by Tom Hanks, after his young son calls a radio talk show on his father’s behalf.

Sleepless in Seattle received positive reviews, and was a sleeper success at the box office, becoming the #8 film of the year. It is widely considered a classic romantic comedy, and one of the best films of the 1990s. It is credited with popularising the Italian dessert tiramisu in the US.

Sandwich Options at Luke’s

Kirk ponders what lunch to order before Sookie and Jackson’s wedding.

Ham on Rye

An American deli sandwich using (often toasted) rye bread as the outer casing, with smoked ham in the middle – usually with mustard and salad options added.

Patty melt [pictured]

An American deli sandwich using toasted bead as the outer casing with a beef burger patty with melted cheese and caramelised onion in the middle – the whole thing grilled together. Basically a cheeseburger made with bread instead of a bun.

Peanut butter and jelly

A US sandwich with peanut butter and jelly (see jelly, previously discussed). A very basic sandwich, often made for children as a snack. This is what Kirk eventually orders.

Salmon Puffs

SOOKIE: So I put on the veil, then I remember I’m serving salmon puffs. Salmon puffs! Okay, completely wrong, so I had to rush over here and try to find another first course, and then I walk in and these daffodils just . . . something snapped, and that’s when you walked in here.

Salmon puffs, an appetiser dish where puff pastry is filled with a mixture of smoked salmon, cream cheese or feta cheese, and flavourings. Compare with lobster puffs, and Roquefort puffs. This show loves puffed food!

Sookie Freaks Out

Lorelai comes downstairs to get some post-coital snacks for she and Christopher to share, and finds Sookie having a pre-wedding meltdown in the kitchen. We get to see Sookie’s wedding dress and veil, and the wedding cake, which is multi-tiered with a stunning swirl of sugared spring flowers over it.

Sookie quickly gets over her wedding jitters, because of course, she and Jackson are Meant to Be. It’s actually really nice to see the best friend in a romantic comedy-drama get to find love and have the wedding of her dreams, when so often this role is doomed to nothing but comic dating disasters, or kept single so as to be permanently on hand for the main character.